Defection of Bellatrix
by Lord Echoside
Summary: What could cause Bellatrix Lestrange to abandon the Dark Lord? Not an HPBL romance... yet.


**Please check Author page for disclaimer and other 'useful' information.**

**Bellatrix**

Voldemort and Bellatrix appeared in Riddle manor. With a wave of his wand Voldemort sent Bellatrix crashing into a wall.

"What happened Bella?" he asked. "You and the others merely had to take the prophecy from Potter after he had taken it from the shelves. Was this too difficult for you? How were you all defeated by one boy?"

"Potter wasn't alone my Lord." Bellatrix answered shakily.

"WHAT? Surely he couldn't have convinced Dumbledore and his Order to accompany him? That old fool would have done anything within his power to prevent Potter from setting foot in the Department of Mysteries."

"Dumbledore didn't come with him my Lord. It was the two youngest Weasleys, the Longbottom boy, the mudblood Granger, and another girl about the same age as the Weasley girl."

"So my most powerful servants were defeated by six _children_?" Voldemort asked coldly.

"N-no m-my Lord," Bellatrix stuttered in fear. "We nearly had Potter and Longbottom subdued in the death chamber until the Order and Dumbledore appeared, Master."

"_Crucio_" Voldemort uttered quietly. He held the curse for only a moment before speaking again.

"This is extremely disappointing and inconvenient, Bella. Not only have you failed to bring me that which you were sent to obtain, but also once again I have to engineer the release of my loyal servants."

"Forgive me, my Lord" Bellatrix pleaded, her voice barely above a whisper. "We underestimated the situation, not to mention Potter and his friends."

"Then you must be taught not to make such mistakes in the future. I do NOT enjoy disappointment Bella. _Crucio_."

As the curse hit her Bellatrix separated herself from the pain. It was by no means easy. She didn't even have to fake her body's reaction to the curse. She handled the Cruciatus curse the same way she learned to deal with the effects of the Dementors in Azkaban. She let her consciousness seek out any place in her mind not affected by the pain. Unfortunately what was waiting for her there was not much better for Bellatrix than the effects of her master's punishment.

She was drawn to the memory of something she had experienced earlier that evening. Something Potter had said in the Department of Mysteries.

"_So," said Harry, "what kind of prophecy are we talking about anyway?"_

"_What kind of prophecy?" repeated Bellatrix, ... "You jest, Harry Potter."_

"_Nope, not jesting," said Harry, ... "How come Voldemort wants it?" ..._

"_You dare speak his name?" whispered Bellatrix._

"_Yeah," said Harry ... "Yeah, I've got no problem saying Vol-"_

"_Shut your mouth!" Bellatrix shrieked. "You dare speak his name with your unworthy lips, you dare besmirch it with your half-blood's tongue, you dare"_

"_Did you know he's a half-blood too?" said Harry recklessly ... "Voldemort? Yeah, his mother was a witch but his dad was a Muggle – or has he been telling you lot he's pureblood?"_

Through the pain of repeated applications of Cruciatus, she felt her rage build again. 'The brat must have lied' she thought. 'But what if he didn't?' came another, much more unwelcome thought. She was annoyed that she couldn't drive the confusion from her mind. The pain from her master's punishment was probably preventing her from thinking clearly. So when the curses finally stopped she couldn't seem to stop herself from asking the one thing she otherwise would have known to NOT ask.

"Half-blood?" she whispered to her Lord once the pain started to recede.

All she could remember after that was the look of rage that came over Voldemort's face before her world went black.

Bellatrix would never be certain how long she spent locked in a cell in the basement of Riddle Manor. Her memories did not include night and day. They only consisted of periods of unconsciousness, torture, and occasionally food. Any peaceful periods of wakefulness were short lived because shortly after she would regain awareness, Voldemort would return to resume her punishment. He never spoke to her though, never tried to point out the error of her ways. No, at this point he only seemed to visit her with the sole purpose of causing her pain.

Eventually though, someone did speak to her. "Hello Bella. You look like hell."

She couldn't immediately place the voice. It was familiar but it was not her Lord's. Slowly she opened her eyes and tried to focus her vision to identify the speaker.

"Rodolphus?" she asked as hope flared within her. Her husband was free and if he was here then perhaps the Dark Lord was ready to forgive her and let her reclaim her place among his Death Eaters.

"Is our master willing to forgive my impertinence?" she asked.

"No my dear" Rodolphus said with a laugh as he closed her cell door behind him. His laugh had a chilling quality to it. "The Dark Lord won't say what you've done to cause this punishment, but he doesn't seem like he's going to forgive you soon. If ever."

Just like that Bellatrix's hopes were dashed. Worse, her husband seemed unconcerned with her plight.

"Why are you here then? And how long have you been free?" she asked.

"Only a few days Bella, and I'm here because I've managed to convince our master that after my incarceration I sorely miss the attentions of my _wife_," he said as he began to disrobe.

"No" she said as she pushed herself across the floor, away from her husband.

Again Rodolphus laughed icily, "Feel free to resist Bella, I had to promise the Dark Lord that you wouldn't enjoy this."

She didn't enjoy it, not in the slightest. Afterwards Voldemort appeared to again torture her to unconsciousness. Thus was added another aspect to Bellatrix's 'punishment'. Still she had no way of tracking the days she spent locked in her cell in the basement. She began wishing that her Lord would just end it for her. If he had no use for her, then kill her. And she would have been happy to die for him too.

Bellatrix awoke at one point to feeling of another presence in her cell. She opened her eyes to see a house-elf standing across the cell from her. It was the strangest looking house-elf she'd ever seen. For one thing he was wearing clothes, and an odd assortment of clothes at that. Mismatched socks, hand knitted trousers and shirt, and several precariously stacked hats on his head. Another thing that marked the elf as odd was that he didn't seem to be afraid. Something that was usually universal for house elves in the Dark Lord's lair.

"Dobby hears miss talking in her sleep" the elf said.

"What?" Bellatrix asked in confusion.

"Dobby hears miss in her sleep," he repeated. "Miss is saying she is wanting to die. Dobby thinks miss is deserving to die."

Bellatrix sighed, "I know, I betrayed my Lord."

"No" said the elf. "Miss is deserving to die because she killed Harry Potter's Sirius."

"How would you know that? And why would a house-elf of the Dark Lord care?" she asked.

"Dobby is not belonging to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, Dobby is free. Harry Potter is Dobby's friend, he is freeing Dobby from a bad dark wizard."

"Did Potter send a house-elf to kill me?" Bellatrix asked in disbelief.

"No Miss. Harry Potter is not knowing Dobby is coming here," the elf said, now seeming slightly nervous.

"Then why are you here?" Bellatrix asked.

"Dobby thinks Miss should surrender herself to Harry Potter to be punished for killing his Sirius" he responded. Bellatrix was shocked to note the anger in his tone.

"Even if I were so inclined, how do you suggest I do that? I'm a prisoner of my Lord now, in case you hadn't noticed. And since I can't just 'pop' all over the place like you bloody house-elves, I have no way of leaving here."

The elf placed his hand on one of the stones in the base of the wall. After a moment the stone glowed for a few seconds and the elf removed his hand.

"Dobby is making you a port-key. Miss need only touch it and say 'surrender' and it will take you to Harry Potter. It will only work if Miss is not meaning to harm Harry Potter."

Bellatrix was just about to inform the strange elf that she no intentions of abandoning her master when the elf disappeared with a slight pop. Shortly afterward her cell door opened and Voldemort walked in. Apparently her peaceful period was over and she had wasted it listening to an insane house-elf.

During the following days though, the elf's suggestion began to seem less crazed. More of Voldemort's servants had been freed and some new recruits had been taken in. Bellatrix was serving as amusement for the veteran Death-Eaters and a training subject for the recruits.

Though she hated to admit it, the increased torture sessions were becoming too much for Bellatrix. She was longing more and more for it just to be ended. It had reached the point where as soon as she would show any sign of awareness, someone would enter and begin her torture again. She realized that this would probably continue until she was in the same state the Longbottoms were currently in due to her. Deciding that death would be preferable to that state, she tried to make to charmed stone across the cell.

It seemed to be the longest journey of her life. Any movement from her would bring someone into the cell that would immediately begin applying the Cruciatus. She wasn't sure how long the journey across the cell took, but by the time she made it she could barely recall which stone she needed and what she had to say to activate it.

The cell door opened just as she laid her hand on the stone. She didn't even look to see who had come this time. She merely whispered the activation, "surrender," and felt the tug behind her navel.

5


End file.
